It's a shame that all those Spanish Metalbands are not that
well-known outside Spain and South-America, because some are
actually very good. Examples are TIERRA SANTA and MAGO DE OZ, but
also SARATOGA, these are excellent bands that should deserve more
attention. The only thing that sets them apart from the other
European and American acts is that they sing in the Spanish
language, which is for many non-Spanish speaking people kind of
problem. But why should that be a problem, because it sounds just
great, and it's the music that cares here, not the lyrics, and
SARATOGA is one of those great Spanish bands, therefore an
interview with them...

Please introduce us your band, when did you form SARATOGA?
Saratoga was formed in 1992 when Nico offered Jero to create a
band where they could express their ideas. They decided to have a
good line-up with Fortu (singer) and Joaquin "El niņo"
(drummer). With this line-up they recorded two albums,
"Saratoga" and "Tributo" (that is a tribute
to the most important heavy metal Spanish bands of the last
twenty years). Then Fortu left the band and was replaced by Gabi,
who the band recorded "Mi ciudad" with
(translated:"My city"). After playing in the most
important cities of Spain Gabi and Joaquin left the band due to
different points of view about how to work in Saratoga. At the
time Leo (singer) and I (drummer) learned of the new and took
part of Saratoga after an audience to check if we were suitable
to play in Saratoga.

Please tell us about your CDs...

Apart from
the albums mentioned, since Leo and I were the new singer and
drummer respectively Saratoga recorded "Vientos de
guerra" ("War winds") in 1999, "Tiempos de
directo" (difficult to translate, itīs something like
"Time of live concerts") in 2001 and "Agotarás"
(the name of the band read from end to beginning) in 2002, this
lastest album is probably the work we are proudest of, it defines
whith most accuracy the kind of music we want to play. Finally,
this last summer we released a DVD showing one of the many
concerts weīve performed.

For us, non-Spanish speaking people the lyrics are hard to
understand, are there any stories behind the songs on your CDs?

Of course,
the lyrics are very important for us. The lyrics depend on who
has composed the song, but usually they deal with actual matters
and situations anyone can have. Some lyrics talk about the idea
people have about God, other ones talk about books we have
readand we are impressed with, or some talk about people (for
instance Charlie Parker), we try to talk about issues people can
be identified with.

You just released a cd-single, with English lyrics, why the
change in lyrics, do you want to breakout of the latin/Spanish
speaking countries?

thatīs
right. In Spain weīve always had two important problems with the
heavy metal music. On the one hand the English level here is very
poor, people that want to speak English very well have to pay for
it, because what is taught in public school is not enough. On the
other hand the level of the musicians was usually low. These two
reasons have made heavy metal bands here to be always
"delayed" in the rest of Europe. Luckily this has
changed, we have reached a high level and now Europe is beginning
to listen to Spanish bands. Itīs obvious that the heart of the
heavy metal music is Europe, and if you want to be known there
you have to sing in English.

I thought your new cd-single showed some of your best work so
far, and now we are all looking forward to a full-length CD, when
is it gonna be released?

The 1st of
March , by the time you read these lines, the new album is likely
to be already released. Its name is "El clan de la
lucha" (translated:"The fight clan").

And are you working on songs, can you tell us more, the style,
the lyrics English or Spanish, just tell us more about yor time
in the studio?

It follows
the same patterns that "Agotarás". We have recorded it
in English and in Spanish. This album is more
complete in all aspects. We have been very carefull with the
production, the arrangements, the lyrics, I mean, we thinkwe have
made our best work up to now.Which bands influenced you?

Every
member in Saratoga likes different music. Leo and I like bands
like Helloween, Manowar, Cradle of Filth, Dimmu Borgir,
Crematory, Rammstein, Korn, etc...(in fact Leo and I have made up
another band
named "Stravaganzza" where we play a darker music),
Jero and Nico prefer bands like Yngwie Malmsten, Deep Purple...
Maybe the secret of Saratoga is that each member has a different
musical culture, but we all find a common place where to develope
our ideas. In my case my favourite bands are Blind Guardian and
Death, althought currently I listen to many different kinds of
music (jazz-fussion, visual rock, brutal-death, etc...).

Do you feel thereīs a lot of competition in Spain between all
the bands, because there are quite a lot of bands playing your
kind of style?

I donīt
think thatīs a problem. Itīs true that there are a lot of bands
playing heavy metal, but there are many of
them that are not very good, they play fine, but they donīt know
how to develope their ideas in an original way. In my opinion
there is a problem with the heavy metal music in general, there
are a lot of bands, but very few create something new, itīs a
shame that many bands are only copies of other bands. In fact, we
would even like there were more good bands here, because in that
case people would have a better opinion of Spanish heavy metal.
The problem here is that people are close-minded, and the only
way of being promoted are four magazines and the
"mouth-to-ear". Television here doesnīt support heavy
metal, even itīs treated unfairly. Itīs very difficult for a
heavy metal musician to be able to earn enough money so as make a
living out of playing heavy metal alone.

How does the future look like for SARATOGA?
very good. We are one of the luckiest bands in Spain, weīve got
a great amount of fans and weīll be playing for one year long.
We may perform in several countries in SouthAmerica.